‘I have been part of a call to action for a public holiday called Windrush Day on 22 June, the anniversary of the arrival of the MV Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks in 1948.’
Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Back in 2010 I wrote an article arguing that we would have failed as a nation if, by 2018, there was still no substantive recognition for the Windrush generation on the 70th anniversary of their arrival in Britain. I have been part of a call to action for a public holiday called Windrush Day on 22 June, the anniversary of the arrival of the MV Empire Windrush at Tilbury docks in 1948. For we need to remember that many aspects of British society today would be unrecognisable without the contributions that immigration and integration have made: from the NHS to the monarchy, our language, literature, enterprise, public life, fashion, music, politics, science, culture, food and even humour.

Windrush Day: a fitting way to celebrate our immigrant population

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Since then, there has been movement on Windrush celebrations. The ship’s image was used as part of the 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony. Recent changes to the national curriculum for history have for the first time recognised the Windrush and wider postwar migration. There has also been a growing campaign to promote the idea of a Windrush Day as a national holiday.

A number of national and regional events are planned on 22 June, including a service at Westminster Abbey and local authority events around the country. No 10 has hosted meetings to explore how the government can support Windrush commemoration events around the country. This is encouraging but piecemeal. As has been so clear in the past weeks and months, obtaining their rightful due for the Windrush generation has been an uphill climb. They saw this as the motherland – but how does Britain see them?

We are disappointed, for example, that the Royal Mail will not recognise the 70th anniversary of the Windrush and its legacy as the time to issue a commemorative stamp. The main explanation is that current policy recognises only anniversaries that are 50, 100 or 150 years. On that basis, the contribution and achievement of living migrants would not be celebrated in this simple, communal and very visible way for another 30 years. Why no flexibility? And why this lack of imagination? How about a statue or monument, or a national oral history programme? As we move towards a post-Brexit Britain, against the backdrop of the recent scandal, a marker for an event as momentous as Windrush is more important than ever.

West Indians arrive in Britain on board the Windrush – archive, 23 June 1948

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The 70th anniversary is a chance to reach across our many different ethnic, faith and family heritages to reject the prejudice and intolerance that seem to have been given a new lease of life by the fractiousness and factionalism of current debates on race, identity and immigration. Of course we, the descendants of that generation, will celebrate. We don’t need the government or officialdom to do that. But this is a chance for all of us to consider the past and locate Windrush in our national story. I hope we seize it.